Thursday, 27 May 2010

Burrelling again

I'm still not thinking straight, yesterday was quite draining. So you can have more pictures of the Burrell Collection.

Although it's not large, there's a lot to see. One of the things I liked was that it was the collection of one person, in the main (he left an endowment for future purchases, but his collection still makes up at least 90% of the whole) and he kept it at his home, so they are incredibly rare and precious pieces, but not grand - you can live with them. Apart from one large tapestry, they are all quite small. His stained glass collection was fitting in the windows of his house, until the war when there was danger of bombing.

The terms of his will were that the collection should be housed in a woodland setting in Glasgow, which wasn't easy to manage until someone left a suitable parkland area to the city, and that it should not travel overseas, for fear of a ship or plane going down. So items can be lent out in mainland Britain but nowhere else. There are about 9,000 pieces, of which a third are on show at any one time

I want to go back and have another browse. However, at least I bought the guide book - which I haven't unpacked yet. All that's been taken out of my case are clothes to be washed and clothes to be hung up. And my toothbrush.

Anyway, here are pictures.

I thought, irresistibly, of Reeves and Mortimer - a Ponderer, for anyone who remembers Big Night Out of about 20 years ago (we taped it for Ro, who was too young to stay up and he was the coolest kid at the Middle School for watching them before anyone else had heard of them) and the Dove from Above.

I can't remember who she was - but a lovely piece of stained glass.

Three more cabinets. The simple silver brooch appealed to me.

Eugène Boudin - The Jetty at Trouville, I think. Being a seaside girl at heart, I loved this. The hugging oneself against the wind.

An early self-portrait. Doesn't he look spiffing? We saw a couple of Rembrandts later, in his less confident and hopeful older age. Fine.

Remarkably, these are Chinese, dating from between 1550 and 1650. Incredible condition and looking far more modern. Beautiful. I want.

A wonderful and witty tapestry, which bears long and close study - though not from this photo which isn't clear enough.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, Dave will come over and we'll return to Bringing On the Wall.

19 comments:

Ah, columba - in the local diocese we have different art museums, but none has a holy dove - is the corpus to be filled? Maybe with holy smoke?

He's very young isn't he ...

The chinese ameublement is simply - unglaublich erstaunlich. I first thought of Riedfelt - what is pure nonsense - but then Bernhard Pankok (bio) came to mind, fits better: It could easily be part of one of his interieurs in Southern Germany sometimes between 1895 and 1910 - so much to discover. (See here for a picture of a stool. It's all unsatisfying, I have the catalogue of his lifetime exhibition Stuttgart 1973, most of his design works are simply destroyed.)

What are they collecting in the rug? Rose leafes, bees? I am sure its some Flemish frivolity ... Huizinga would love it, zum Weinen schön.

How annoying that the photo cuts off part of the label by the glove - bread is mentioned though. It doesn't look like a bread container, but maybe. I'll see if it's in the guide book, but not right now as it's on the landing and the bedroom door is open and the Sage is asleep.

The tapestry is preparing for a rabbit hunt. Its sister tapestry, which wasn't there, is of after the rabbit hunt. What looks like baskets are nets being placed over the burrow entrances.

The happy bunnies at the bottom left have escaped. The standing woman, top right, is pointing down towards a man whose trousers have caught on a thorn. Since it wouldn't be appropriate to show his bare backside, the rear of a rabbit is shown as it disappears into its burrow.

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Copyright

Oh, what's the problem? This is hardly Great Literature. I'd appreciate anything taken from here being acknowledged, and I might change my mind if I'm suddenly proclaimed as the Literary Queen of the Blogosphere - but I probably wouldn't. Do what you like, just as long as it doesn't extend to defamation of anyone, even me.

Actually, you want to pass off what I say as your own, I might even be flattered. Let's face it, who cares anyway?